No big surprise here ...
If there is any group in America that does not want anyone peeking into their email or cellphone messages, it is our esteemed Members of Congress and their contributors!
The FBI director James Comey's bid to have Congress kibosh default encryption appears to have publicly failed after senators said the proposal would be rejected. Republication and anti-surveillance crusader Zoe Lofgren told The Hill the G-Men's bid to have Congress wind back the crypto clocks would have "zero chance" of …
Even though if you look at it more sensible, those are the ones who probably should be watched way more. :)
Assuming people are the same no matter how much money they have/deal with, the chance of someone doing a fraud is the same for everybody. However if you are dealing with billions the damage of a fraud is likely to be much higher than if you only deal with hundreds of dollars.
He called her a "Republication and anti-surveillance crusader", I believe. I assume that means she's in favor of publishing things again (but only things that were public to begin with, and not anything that was private).
Later in the article he wrote "Lofgren's stance was backed up by fellow Republican Darrell Issa". Darrell is a fellow, but Lofgren is not one of his fellow Republicans. That is, as a member of Congress she's probably a republican, but she's not a Republican.
I hope that clears things up.
Very few voters would have wanted the DMCA, but Congress had no problem putting that into law. So I don't think it would take very much for Congress to give the FBI whatever it wants, even post-Snowden. But it would be even more effective if they could do it without letting the public know that they're doing it.
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More like a case of bad timing on the part of the FBI. Surely they must know there's an election in two weeks and all 435 Representatives and 33 Senators are trying to keep their jobs. It's best to hold the applause for the congresscritters and see what happens on this score in the next few months.
There's a reason why Congress (and pretty much every political group) does bills with a large number of features lumped together, it makes it much harder for the public to know what the new bill does. Passing something explicitly to roll back a feature the public already has and is aware protects their privacy is far riskier, because they can't hide it behind other policies or spin it in a positive way
While it's nice to hear that Congress "probably" wouldn't go along with the FBI, it's too late. I think we
Americans have lost all faith in Congress or the 3-letter agencies to do the right thing. Hell... Congress has a pissing contest just on passing a budget and any other legislation. What makes us think that they wouldn't have one on this and then give into the FBI?
Right now there is still some public resentment about the NSA stories coming out post-Snowden. Wait a few months or maybe 1-2 years and then the Feds will be able to sneak anti-crypto legislation in without hitting the headlines.
The reason I say that is that it will give them enough time to invent some cases that prove that crypto that the Feds can't crack through a subpoena are causing people to be killed by kidnappers or causing children to be sold into prostitution (or whatever). The fact is right now the Feds cannot point out a SINGLE case where crypto prevented them from solving it, and the 3 cases Mr Comey (FBI Director) highlighted in a recent speech had nothing to do with crypto AT ALL ( see https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2014/10/more_crypto_war.html )
I was kind of expecting Congress to pass something like that, or bring up "Clipper: The Sequel". But then they're having a big election next month and nobody wants to be the idiot who killed liberty in "the Land of the Free".
At least Senator Darrell Issa is consistent; he opposed both the hideous SOPA/PIPA thing and the equally horrible ACTA. Nice to see a congresscritter on the real citizen's side for once.
Maybe I'm just getting old, but the image of the burning B-26 you chose to go with the link to this article (under "More From The Register") is, well, questionable.
It's public domain and well used, I get it. The crash and burn reference, I get it. But I also get how it captures one of the last few terrifying seconds on this earth for eight guys who went to England and, thanks to a direct flak hit on Feb 23 1945, never came back.
Capt. Carl F. Chapman, Jr. - Pilot - Macon, Georgia
1st Lt. John J. Sheehan - CoPilot - Boston, Massachusetts
2nd Lt. James R. Harl - Bombardier - Pulaski, Iowa
1st Lt. Kenneth G. Bowdish - Navigator - Seattle, Washington
1st Lt. Frederick D. Storey, Jr. - GEE Operator - Houston, Texas
T/Sgt. J.P. Herndon - Radio Operator/Gunner - Dallas, Texas
S/Sgt. Ballard J. Bentley - Engineer/Gunner - Neon, Kentucky
S/Sgt. W.T. Williamson - Tail Gunner - Dallas, Texas
I don't know...
A pertinent point.
There's a wall plaque a stone's throw from where I'm typing this that records two incidents that happened nearby. An 8th Air Force B-24 Liberator on a training mission had some sort of trouble and came down on the parkland near where the memorial is now. A second -also on a training flight - about a month later parked itself into a house at bit further down the road. Two crews, no survivors.